Will Sharpe, known for his role in The White Lotus, is no longer attached to direct the film adaptation of Michelle Zauner’s best-selling memoir Crying in H Mart. In a recent interview with SSENSE, Zauner confirmed that the project is currently “on pause.”
“There were issues with the Hollywood strikes, and the director stepped away from the project,” Zauner explained. “I spent a year working on the screenplay, which was a tough but rewarding process. I still have faith it will get made someday, but it’s not happening anytime soon. Right now, I’m focusing on other creative projects, so the film will have to wait.”
The adaptation was first announced in 2021 after MGM’s Orion Pictures acquired the rights to Zauner’s deeply personal memoir, which explores the loss of her mother to terminal cancer and her complex relationship with her Korean identity. The book delves into her upbringing in predominantly white Oregon, time spent with her grandmother in Seoul, meeting her future husband, and her journey with her band Japanese Breakfast—who are set to provide the film’s soundtrack.
When Sharpe was announced as the director in 2023, he shared with People that the memoir resonated with him on a personal level:
“There were lots of things that resonated with me as somebody who is half-Japanese, half-British, [and] spent my childhood in Tokyo. Some of the descriptions of being jet-lagged in your family’s kitchen felt very familiar to me.”
Zauner had previously praised Sharpe’s involvement, noting, “His sensitivity as a director and an actor, his ability to find humor and grace within the tragedy of the everyday, and his own personal experience, having grown up between two cultures, make him the perfect director for this film.”
For now, the future of Crying in H Mart remains uncertain, but Zauner remains hopeful that the film will come to life when the timing is right.